NATO 'Already Has Boots on the Ground in Ukraine', Ex-CIA Officer Says
04.03.2024 09:50
Photo: AFP 2023 / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
NATO already has “boots on the ground” in Ukraine, former CIA officer Larry Johnson emphasized during an recent interview on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s podcast Judging Freedom.
“There are Americans in there, there are NATO forces already on the ground in Ukraine, operating systems which are attacking Russia,” Johnson said.
Accordingly, Moscow is signaling that, “this is going to stop, or you are going to have to pay a price,” the CIA vet accentuated.
Is Germany preparing strikes against Russia?
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, said she had obtained an audio recording of high-ranking officers of the German Bundeswehr discussing "how they will bomb the Crimean… pic.twitter.com/aV4AOSbOly— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 1, 2024
At this point, Johnson described the timing of the latest bombshell intercept featuring German war talk on Ukraine as far from accidental.
On Friday, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, published text and audio of a conversation among four Bundeswehr representatives discussing a potential attack on the Crimean Bridge with German-made Taurus long-range cruise missiles. The conversation, which took place on February 19, involved Inspector of the German Air Force Ingo Gerhartz, Brig. Gen. Frank Graefe, head of the operations and exercises department at the air force command in Berlin, and two employees of the air operations center of the Bundeswehr Space Command.
DPA reported later that the leaked conversation between German military officers on security matters concerning Russia and Ukraine conducted on the CISCO Webex platform was authentic. On Friday, German newspaper Die Welt reported, citing German soldiers, that the recording was circulating in the Bundeswehr, and that officials considered it authentic.
"Russia is confident that it has got Ukraine on the run," especially with the recent liberation of the stronghold of Avdeyevka, Larry Johnson stated in the podcast. At the same time, according to the CIA veteran, the leak coincides with remarks made by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during his annual State of the Union address. Speaking on February 29, Putin accused the West of instigating the Ukraine conflagration, adding that the US-driven anti-Russia campaign had “miscalculated and ran into the firm position and determination of our multinational people.”
During that speech, the president “put the West on notice that attacks on Russia will not go unanswered, and that it runs the risk of nuclear escalation,” stressed Johnson.
While further provision of Western aid to the Kiev regime is in limbo in the US Congress, divisions on propping up the regime in Kiev are heating up the rift between France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, political analysts have told Sputnik.
Macron recently proclaimed at a summit in Paris that there was "no consensus" on sending ground troops to Ukraine in an "official manner," but added that "nothing was excluded." Despite a swift wave of backlash, he defended his stance, claiming his words were "weighed, thought through and measured." Olaf Scholz was quick to reject the idea, emphasizing that "there will be no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there" by European states or NATO members.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne also stepped in to rule out conducting military operations in Ukraine, telling the radio broadcaster France Inter on Friday:
"The French will not die for Ukraine. We will not send troops into combat because the framework has been set, which is to prevent Russia from winning without going to war with Russia. And nothing is excluded within this framework."
68% of the French do not approve of Macron’s position on the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, according to Le Figaro.The statistic was provided by a survey conducted by Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for the newspaper. 31% supported Macron. In addition, the majority of…— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 29, 2024
As for the US, President Joe Biden may consider sending US Army personnel to Ukraine if he is reelected, American billionaire David Sachs suggested on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
To begin with, Biden "opposed sending F16s, Abrams tanks, and long-range missiles to Ukraine on the grounds that it could start WWIII," Sachs recalled, adding that, "the only taboo left is ground troops."
Citing "daily revelations that NATO special forces are already operating in Ukraine," he concluded that Biden would "no doubt" send ground troops to Ukraine "should he win a second term."
It should be noted that diehard supporters of Kiev, like Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, have gone on record as saying they are not considering sending troops. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was also cited as saying that, “there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
Moscow has repeatedly warned of the danger of a direct conflict between Russia and NATO if the alliance were to send combat troops to fight in the West's proxy war in Ukraine.
“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov underscored, adding that, "in that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of direct conflict].”